Financial Times Announces 4th Editon of Sustainable Banking Awards
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The Financial Times has launched the 2009 edition of the FT Sustainable Banking Awards, the leading awards recognising banks and other financial institutions for leadership and innovation in integrating social, environmental and corporate governance considerations into their operations.
Now in their fourth year, the awards-organised by the FT in partnership with IFC, a member of the World Bank Group-are all the more timely in light of the financial crisis, which has exposed flaws in traditional banking and investment models and intensified debate over the role of ethics and sustainability objectives in ensuring the financial industry’s long-term health and competitiveness.
The crisis has also highlighted the continuing plight of the very poor and the increasingly urgent need to find solutions to the under-supply of basic needs such as energy, water and food alongside efforts to deal with the challenges of climate change.
To underline these concerns, the 2009 Sustainable Banking Awards incorporate a new category, the Award for Achievement in Basic Needs Financing, which is open to all financial sector participants and recognises ground-breaking transactions, programmes and initiatives that use the power of finance to address the scarcity of essential goods across society.
Entries will be accepted until March 6, 2009 in the following categories:
Sustainable Bank of the Year
Emerging Markets Sustainable Bank of the Year
Achievement in Basic Needs Financing
Achievement in Banking at the Bottom of the Pyramid
Sustainable Investor of the Year
The awards for Achievement in Basic Needs Financing, Banking at the Bottom of the Pyramid, and Sustainable Investor of the Year, are open to all financial institutions, including non-banks. The other two categories are open only to banking institutions.
As in previous years, the overall Emerging Markets award winner will be chosen among the winners of four Regional Leadership awards covering Africa/Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
A high-level judging panel comprising leading experts in sustainable finance will select short-lists for each category in April 2009. The winners will be announced and the awards presented on June 4, 2009 at a gala dinner at the Renaissance Chancery Court Hotel in London attended by senior bankers and decision-makers in the area of sustainability.
The dinner will conclude the 2009 FT Sustainable Banking Conference, the major annual summit on sustainable banking and finance that will gather some of the worlds most renowned visionaries, strategists and financial decision-makers to discuss the impact of the financial crisis, and particularly whether the historic changes in the financial sector will drive banks to meet stakeholders expectations of more open, transparent businesses that demonstrably deliver value to society.
The FT Sustainable Banking Awards have grown in popularity and last years winners were selected from a record 182 entries from 129 institutions across 54 countries.
In the 2008 awards, Banco Real of Brazil was named Sustainable Bank of the Year and also took the overall Emerging Markets prize.
The 2008 winners and runners-up in each category were:
Sustainable Bank of the Year
” Winner: Banco Real, Brazil
” Runner-up: Rabobank, Netherlands
Sustainable Emerging Markets Bank of the Year
” Winner: Banco Real, Brazil
” Regional winner Africa/Middle East: Nedbank, South Africa
” Regional winner Asia: YES Bank, India
” Regional winner Eastern Europe: Industrial Development Bank of Turkey (TSKB)
” Regional winner Latin America: Banco Real, Brazil
Sustainable Deal of the Year
” Winner: BlueOrchard Finance, Switzerland/Morgan Stanley, U.S.
” Runner-up: Glitnir Bank, Iceland
Banking at the Bottom of the Pyramid
” Winner: ASA, Bangladesh
” Runner-up: Wizzit, South Africa
Sustainable Investor of the Year
” Winner: E+Co, U.S.
” Runner-up: SAM Sustainable Asset Management, Switzerland
